


Encore

by Arcwin



Series: Ficlets [7]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Can you blame her?, F/M, First Kiss, Mutual Pining, POV Rose, Rose is ready to throw herself at him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-10 17:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20855885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arcwin/pseuds/Arcwin
Summary: The TARDIS stumbles upon a beautiful, breathtaking cosmic ballet that brings the Doctor and Rose closer together.





	Encore

“Ooh, this is  _ brilliant!”  _

Rose looked up at him, her silly, ridiculous, gorgeous Doctor, and grinned. He always says that when he’s excited. “Oh? And  _ what’s _ so  _ brilliant?!” _

He glanced up, startled, as if he’d forgotten she was there. Odds are, he sort of had. Knowing him, that is. The Doctor has a way of losing track of...everything, sometimes. Even people. Rose didn’t take it personally. (Not a lot, that is. This was a good day, so less than normal. She let it slide.)

“Did you see this, this, this  _ glorious _ ,  _ beautiful _ ,  ** _brilliant_ ** thing!?” he exclaimed, pointing at the screen in front of him. They had been traveling aimlessly, just sort of letting the T.A.R.D.I.S. do her thing. Apparently they had stumbled upon something amazing. Rose rounded the main console and looked at the screen, having no clue what she was looking at but happy to indulge him all the same. “It’s a binary star system with four, count them,  _ four _ black holes just sort of weaving all over in between them like a black hole ballet!” He looked up from under his crazy bangs, a huge, ridiculous grin on his face, like a child on Christmas. 

Rose smiled as their eyes met, her own excitement flaring as it tried to match his. She knew it couldn’t even get close, but she tried anyway, her heart racing as she stared into his eyes. They had so many moments like this, moments where she felt the magnetism between them, the electricity sparking and buzzing until she felt like throwing herself at him. She knew it was ridiculous, this crush. He was a Timelord, a man who’d traveled the stars and didn’t have time for silly girls from London.

“So, we gonna go check it out?” she finally managed, tearing her eyes away to stare (without seeing) at the screen. Her cheeks were hot, tingles running up the back of her head. She knew she was blushing, but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t looking at her anyway, racing around the console so he could adjust the controls to bring the ship closer to the astronomical dance. 

“ _ Well _ ,” he started in that way of his, head thrown back and mouth dropped open while his tongue played with his top teeth. She hated when he did this. (She loved it, let’s be honest. It was quite sexy.) “ _ If you wanna _ ,” he murmured, eyes dancing and bright. 

She shook her head, fighting a smile, and forced herself to look down at her shoes. “You know you’re gonna do it anyway, so, go on, then!” she answered, grinning down at her shoes. The blush on her cheeks got hotter as she thought about that terrible tongue doing terrible things, and she hoped he was distracted again, flying the ship towards the star system. A pair of white converse sneakers came into view, and her heart pounded in her chest. Can Timelords hear heartbeats? Sometimes he licks the dirt and can tell what year and place they’re in, so who knows what else he can do.

She hoped he couldn’t. No,  _ prayed _ he couldn’t. (Then again, it happens every time he’s around, so maybe he just thinks she’s got a heart problem?)

“Rose,” he started softly, leaning his body so her shoulder bumped into his arm. “I can’t wait to show you this.”

She could have melted to the floor of the T.A.R.D.I.S. right then and there. Her heart, impossibly fast, raced even faster as he dropped his hand onto hers and squeezed it gently. It was warmer than she expected, and a bit clammy, almost like he was nervous too. (No, can’t be. He’s the Doctor, he never gets nervous. In fact, he’s the opposite of nervous. Even when it throws them both into danger. It’s almost a bad thing, actually.) 

The floor swayed beneath them and lurched to a halt, throwing them both forward onto the console and yanking Rose dramatically out of her swoon. Pulling away, they peered down at the screen and saw that they had paused right next to one of the stars, and in front of them two of the black holes were swirling around each other like they were fighting for dominance. 

“Aren’t we too close?” Rose asked, remembering how dangerous both of these astronomical wonders are, and how unfazed the Doctor seemed to be even in the face of such extreme risk. She doesn’t know if it’s a Timelord thing, or just a Doctor thing, but she doesn’t trust his judgment about safety very often.

“Nah,” the Doctor replied, pulling her to the door. He flung it open with one arm, the other wrapped around her waist, and stepped onto the threshold. 

In front of them lay the amazing vastness, the completely incomprehensible,  _ ineffable _ universe. A few extra steps and they’d be outside the special force field or whatever it was that kept them from floating away and freezing to death. 

“Whoa,” Rose breathed, caught off guard even though she thought she knew what it was going to be like. She was wrong, dead wrong, and the Doctor beamed at her as she gaped. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered, nearly overwhelmed with the intensity of what was just below her feet. The colors were beyond anything she could have imagined, beautiful rainbows of blinding light coming from the suns while voids of the blackest black swirled around each other nearby. Every time one of them passed a little closer to the T.A.R.D.I.S., it wobbled under the gravitational pull, convincing Rose that the Doctor was exactly what he proudly said he was: a little mad. 

She tore her eyes away for a moment to look up at him, about to suggest that they move a little further back, and was shocked to see him gazing down at her. The expression on his face was open and vulnerable and full of the longing she felt inside her core every single time she looked at him. It was so deep it nearly hurt.

“Doctor…,” she began, unsure what to say. She never expected he might reciprocate her feelings, never thought he went beyond playful flirting and friendly compassion. 

He didn’t change, didn’t hide it away when she called his name. Instead, he smiled, a radiant, beautiful thing, and exhaled through his nose. “Rose Tyler,” he said, eyes filling with unshed tears. “I’d like to kiss you.”

Rose’s knees wobbled beneath her, suddenly weak, and she put on the best and bravest face she could. “Well,” she said, clearing her throat. “What are you waiting for?” she finished, her voice tight. 

She expected passion, if she was honest with herself. She thought that if the Doctor ever kissed her (and God she hoped he would) that he’d throw the passion he throws into everything else behind the kiss. This was different. He leaned down, cupping her face gently in his hands, and brought his own face so close their noses nearly touched. The smile on his lips was mirrored in his eyes--a soft, sensitive thing that seemed as timid as a sparrow, like it might leave the second it got startled. Rose held still, determined not to scare him off, and smiled back. 

And then, it happened.

It was slow, just the tentative touch of his lips to hers as he tested it out. As they both got more comfortable, he curled his body around hers, enveloping her. Unafraid, she wrapped her arms around his torso and pulled him even closer, inhaling his unique scent and letting down every barrier she’d built around these dreaded  _ feelings _ she’d had for far too long. She was the one who deepened the kiss, pressing the tip of her tongue to the closed barrier of his lips, causing him to tense in her arms. It was only a moment, and then he let her in, body relaxing as he held her close. 

They kissed and kissed, and it could have been an eternity as far as Rose was concerned. She was ready to give up the rest of her life for this kiss. Nothing else seemed important, not even the swirling astronomical dance going on at their feet. Nothing else compared. She was kissing the Doctor,  _ her _ Doctor, and damn it was good.

When they finally parted, both breathing a bit more heavily than they had been before, she grinned up at him. “Well, I think we oughta do that a whole lot more often.”

He smiled back, his love for her pouring out of him like sunbeams. “Oh, yes, I think so.”

Then he pulled her next to him, wrapped his arm around her waist, and they stared down at the universe’s ballet. The black holes seemed to be moving far enough away that they might actually disconnect, and when they finally did, one of them shooting off into space, Rose clapped. “Bravo, bravo,” she said with a laugh.

Next to her, the Doctor joined in, shouting, “Encore!”

They dissolved into giggles, as they so often had done, but this time, they stayed much closer to each other. Things were different now, and Rose couldn’t be happier.


End file.
